‘Luck ran out on us’ laments Royals’ boss
MEATH boss Eamon Murray lamented his sides bad luck following their nine point defeat to Tyrone but also conceded that the Ulster champions were by far the superior outfit in the All-Ireland IFC decider.
‘Tyrone are a very good team, the best team by a mile,’ Murray said immediately after the game.
‘Little small things went against us all day, passes went astray, the sin-binning of Maire O’Shaughnessy didn’t help us either. The injury to Aoibhin Cleary early on was also a massive loss. She had a problem all week but we thought it was fixed, she only lasted a few minutes.’
The Meath girls were up against it from the very start as Tyrone struck a number of decisive blows in the opening quarter that proved decisive.
‘It was the very start we dreaded, Murray continued. ‘ We had discussed it that could happen, we knew Tyrone were going to come at us and maybe the occasion got to us early on.
‘We knew it was going to take us a while to settle down, everything we thought happened, we couldn’t stop it. The goal before half-timekilled us and we had three or four chances earlier and didn’t take them.
‘There was too many things happening to make changes, nothing went right for us in the opening 20 minutes.
‘It’s not easy to be beaten, but it was a great year for us and we are very proud of the girls. We had more scores at the end, we spent more time in their half in the first half and more chances, but we didn’t take them.
‘It is a hard lesson to learn, but we will learn from this, we have to learn. When did we ever concede six goals before? That will never happen again. We have one of the best keepers in the country, but she couldn’t do anything about any of the goals.
‘The luck ran out on us today, but we will be back. If we were asked three months ago would we settle for Croke Park on All-Ireland final day we would have grabbed it with both hands.
‘We are very happy with where we are at present. We will probably lose a few players, but we also have a few more to come in. It’s tough, but we had a marvellous year, we are only 17 months in the job and to get this far is immense.’
Captain Niamh O’Sullivan also lamented the concession of so many goals as well as the slow start.
‘It was unfortunate that we made such a poor start. Goals wins games and Tyrone had that experience over us, having played in last year’s final.
‘We knew it was going to be a tough battle, but I am immensely proud of the girls. We were very focused and calm in the lead up to the game and the girls gave it their all.
‘It has been a great experience for us, the whole lead up to the game and running out on the pitch and hearing the roar of the Meath supporters.
It’s 24 years since a Meath team had played on All-Ireland final day. The girls are disappointed and we will go away from here, get over it and hopefully be back again next year.
‘We have a very young team, it was a big day for all of us and we will treasure that. Everyone has been so good and supportive, the whole country has really got behind us,’ the Meath captain concluded. TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 23 MONDAY SEPTEMBER 24 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 30